The Story of the Publisher of the Forged Yerushalmi Kodshim

The Story of the Publisher of the Forged Yerushalmi Kodshim

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Most are aware of the famous forgery perpetrated by Shlomo Yehuda Friedlaender at the beginning of the 20th century – the Yerushalmi on Seder Kodshim. (For background see here). Recently, R. Baruch Oberlander has written a series of articles, which appeared in Or Yisrael, further illuminating this episode. Now, the great-grandson of the publisher (Ya’akov Weider who was killed in the Holocaust) of this Yerushalmi offers the story behind his great-grandfather decision to publish this book. (link) He also defends…

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Shnayer Leiman – The New Encyclopaedia Judaica: Some Preliminary Observations

Shnayer Leiman – The New Encyclopaedia Judaica: Some Preliminary Observations

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The New Encyclopaedia Judaica: Some Preliminary Observations by Shnayer Leiman 1. In 1972, the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica appeared in print. With 25,000 entries, it moved well beyond its distinguished predecessors, such as the Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1906), the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1939-43), and the short-lived German language Encyclopaedia Judaica (Berlin, 1928-34). Its special focus on the Holocaust and its aftermath, on the State of Israel, and on the centrality of the Jewish community in…

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Sale On Seforim Hard Drives

Sale On Seforim Hard Drives

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As discussed previously, there are two hard drive systems which contain thousands of seforim. Both of these will be on sale starting on Sunday June 3 for two weeks. For more information one can contact Mr. Flohr, who provided the information which appears below. Here are the sale prices: Otzar Hachochma – Hard Drive System Full version (23,000 seforim)- $1380 (reg. $1980)Bney Torah (21,500 seforim) – $1240 (reg. $1780)G’mara V’Halacha (15,800 seforim) -$930 (reg. $1320)Torah U’Midrash (15,800 seforim) – $930…

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The Custom of Akdamut on Shavuot

The Custom of Akdamut on Shavuot

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R. Brodt has already discussed the custom of azharot on Shavous, I wanted to discuss another Shavous custom – akdamut. Akdamut is the poem in Aramaic which is said around the time of the reading of the Torah on the first day of Shavuot. This poem, composed by R. Meir ben Isaac who lived in Worms in the 11th century. He was also know as R. Meir Sha”tz (Shiliach Tzibor). The poem itself describes what happens in heaven when the…

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The Custom of Azharot on Shavous

The Custom of Azharot on Shavous

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The Custom of Azharot on Shavousby R Eliezer Brodt The Yom tov of Shavous called Yom Matan Torahsenu as it is the day we received the Torah thousands of years ago at Har Sinai. It has many minhaghim that we do to remind us of this such as putting up grass and flowers or eating dairy dishes. Another minhag which many Jews have is to say azharot today. In this post I would like to discuss a bit of interesting…

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Review of a new edition of the Sefer Chasidim

Review of a new edition of the Sefer Chasidim

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Review of a new edition of the Sefer Chasidimby R. Eliezer Brodt As recently mentioned on this blog this generation is privileged to have many seforim especially rishonim being reprinted in critical editions based on manuscripts etc. One of the publishing houses which has been involved in publishing such works is Mechon Otzar haPoskim. A few years ago they released a few volumes of a critical edition of the Mahzhor Vitri which to date its still not complete. And now,…

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